JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (May 10, 2022) – The Reece Museum at East Tennessee State University presents “Local Art in the Age of the 2020 Global Pandemic,” an exhibition featuring the work of 40 artists living or working in Tennessee’s First Congressional District during the early days of the pandemic.
The exhibition is on display now through Sept. 30. A public reception will be held
on Thursday, Aug. 25, from 5-7 p.m.
“Local Art in the Age of the 2020 Global Pandemic” is an exhibition of artwork made
in 2019-2020. This special collection provides an “emotive snapshot of artistic expression
during the age of the novel coronavirus pandemic,” museum staff said, and is part
of the permanent collection of the Reece Museum. The collection won an Award of Excellence
presented by the Tennessee Association of Museums at the 2021 statewide conference.
The Reece Museum and Mary B. Martin School of the Arts at ETSU, community supporter
Bravissima! Women Sponsoring the Arts! and others joined in an initiative to purchase
the 40 works of art that became this special collection.
The idea for the initiative began when museum staff saw a need to document and preserve
“our collective experiences and to support artists living in our community during
the 2020 novel coronavirus pandemic,” the museum said. Staff asked artists to submit
images of recent work along with a narrative describing the impact of the pandemic
and how the work relates to that experience. Catalogs containing the submitted images
and artist narratives are available to accompany the exhibit.
“This collection is a really beautiful grouping of individual pieces of artwork that
have become representative of our overall collective experience, and record the indescribable
for posterity,” said Rebecca Proffitt, the museum’s interim director. “The exhibit
and accompanying catalog explore the effects of uncertainty and the power of the arts
to reconnect us to our community and to one another.”
The Reece Museum is a unit of the Center of Excellence for Appalachian Studies and
Services. The Reece Museum is located on the campus of ETSU and is open Monday through
Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information, visit etsu.edu/reece or call (423) 439-4392.